Shortage of train crews on Great Western Railway - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[johoare]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) seem to be gradually removing the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) from the Maidenhead timetable.. So having given us extra capacity with the EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) they are then taking it away again.. Added to that the lack of drivers and therefore train cancellations it feels like one step forward and two steps back currently.. That will teach me to be so optimistic! 

[IndustryInsider]

The 17.36 certianly used to be an 8 car HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and needed to be as such. It toyed with being an adelante when an HST was removed for a few weeeks last summer. The 5 car turbo is poor and the 2 car is criminal.

This simply shifts more passengers for maidenhead to the next direct service which is the  perennially overcrowded 18.18 which is a turbo itself and is the worst train of the schedule.

There's also the 17:49 HST which also usually loads to near/full capacity but is occasionally subbed with a 180 or Turbo.  Stopping on the main line it will often do the run in a very impressive 17 minutes for the 24 miles, though if you're at the back of the queue for the steps then you can add another three minutes before you can get off the platform unless you walk down the ramp to the car park!

[Adelante_CCT]

Yes, the 23:18 is often sacrificed as the driver and train work empty from Oxford at around 9pm.

This practice will stop in January, with what looks like the last service from Greenford and the evening Bourne End shuttle forming at Paddington to create the 23:20 to Oxford

[NickB]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) seem to be gradually removing the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) from the Maidenhead timetable.. So having given us extra capacity with the EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) they are then taking it away again.. Added to that the lack of drivers and therefore train cancellations it feels like one step forward and two steps back currently.. That will teach me to be so optimistic! 

Could be time to call the PM again. She got the HSTs reinstalled last time FGW^▸ (First Great Western) tried to ditch them.
Another morning commuter mentioned one of the morning HSTs has been canned recently as well. The 8.02??

[Adelante_CCT]

The former 07:59? service which was an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) has now been replaced by the 08:02 8 car electric service since beginning of the month.

I don't know how busy the HST got but at least you now have a guaranteed seat on that service (when it runs  )

[Sixty3Closure]

Hopefully its only temporary but the 06.53 from Twyford has been only 3 carriages a couple of times this week. Gets a bit cosy and more so by Maidenhead. It was its customary 3-5 minutes late so GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are keeping some things as before.

[TaplowGreen]

48 cancellations already today, all due to shortage of train crew. Still not a whisper from Hopwood.

I think it's time for fewer "keynote" speeches from him, and more attention to the day to day operation of his business.

[Timmer]

48 cancellations already today, all due to shortage of train crew. Still not a whisper from Hopwood.

I think it's time for fewer "keynote" speeches from him, and more attention to the day to day operation of his business.

And stop wasting money on fantasy adverts that show nothing of the reality of travelling GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) at the moment which could go to paying your staff to actually run something passengers pay you to do... trains!

I'd hate to think how much it cost First to run that ad during prime time Saturday night on ITV. No comfort if you were going to be on one of their 48 cancelled or 21 terminating/starting short services today.

Without being able to look back, this looks to be one of the worst Sundays for cancelled/affected services down to train crew. Is this 'unofficial' action (which they are entitled to do) by train crew escalating?

[johoare]

Yep - the 7.59am HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (8 coaches) and the 8.02am from Henley (5 coaches) which ran non stop from Maidenhead to Paddington have been replaced by one 8 carriage electric train. The 7.59am was probably the busiest HST other than the 7.08am.. I've not tried the 8.02am electric train but I'm pretty sure you won't be guaranteed a seat on it seeing the amount of people who used to use the 7.59am...

I am looking forward to a week of cancellations again since the Electric train drivers have been working this weekend...

As I said - one step forward and two massive ones back. Thanks GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)  - I expect you'll still be happy to take my money when I go to get my new monthly ticket later

[IndustryInsider]

Without being able to look back, this looks to be one of the worst Sundays for cancelled/affected services down to train crew. Is this 'unofficial' action (which they are entitled to do) by train crew escalating?

I did post in another thread, but the engineering work imposed by NR^» (Network Rail - home page) didn't give enough notice for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to issue amended crew diagrams, so in many cases they were relying on staff cooperation.  With incentives to cooperate recently removed at the behest of the union and other things such as West and LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) drivers now being paid much less (circa 8k a year) less than their HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) colleagues, goodwill is unsurprising quite thin on the ground at the moment.

[NickB]

Yep - the 7.59am HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (8 coaches) and the 8.02am from Henley (5 coaches) which ran non stop from Maidenhead to Paddington have been replaced by one 8 carriage electric train. The 7.59am was probably the busiest HST other than the 7.08am.. I've not tried the 8.02am electric train but I'm pretty sure you won't be guaranteed a seat on it seeing the amount of people who used to use the 7.59am...

I am looking forward to a week of cancellations again since the Electric train drivers have been working this weekend...

As I said - one step forward and two massive ones back. Thanks GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)  - I expect you'll still be happy to take my money when I go to get my new monthly ticket later

Without wanting to go too far off topic, how does GWR get away with slashing services like this?  Who holds them to account and challenges the decision making process? They just seem to come up with an idea and run with it without any thought or consideration, and once it's done it's harder to undo.

[Worcester_Passenger]

A round trip from Paddington to Hereford cancelled today - 12:42 from Paddington, and 16:34 back from Hereford.

According to JourneyCheck,

This is due to a shortage of train crew.

According to realtimetrains,

This service was cancelled throughout due to a planning error (TA).

[Adelante_CCT]

The planning error being that they mistakenly thought drivers would actually turn up on a Sunday

[SandTEngineer]

Yep - the 7.59am HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (8 coaches) and the 8.02am from Henley (5 coaches) which ran non stop from Maidenhead to Paddington have been replaced by one 8 carriage electric train. The 7.59am was probably the busiest HST other than the 7.08am.. I've not tried the 8.02am electric train but I'm pretty sure you won't be guaranteed a seat on it seeing the amount of people who used to use the 7.59am...

I am looking forward to a week of cancellations again since the Electric train drivers have been working this weekend...

As I said - one step forward and two massive ones back. Thanks GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)  - I expect you'll still be happy to take my money when I go to get my new monthly ticket later

Without wanting to go too far off topic, how does GWR get away with slashing services like this?  Who holds them to account and challenges the decision making process? They just seem to come up with an idea and run with it without any thought or consideration, and once it's done it's harder to undo.

Isn't it covered by Section 7 of the Franchise Agreement?  I think a lot of the blame lays with the client, DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), for not enforcing it.....
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-great-western

[grahame]

A round trip from Paddington to Hereford cancelled today - 12:42 from Paddington, and 16:34 back from Hereford.

According to JourneyCheck,

This is due to a shortage of train crew.

According to realtimetrains,

This service was cancelled throughout due to a planning error (TA).

The planning error is that they don't have enough crew to run all the trains 

I've travelled today on a Great Western train, a Cross Country train, a Virgin West Coast train and an Arriva  Trains Wales train, and am now on a vehicle run by Irish Ferries.   

Once I departed Bristol (see picture attached), I saw no further signs of last minute cancellations on the departure boards at Birmingham New Street or Crewe ... which rather goes to prove it can be done!